Mississippi Ice Hockey
23 weeks ago
by JR
in Mississippi Life
Yes, we do have ice hockey in Mississippi (with real ice and everything). In fact, we have two teams that compete in the SPHL, a lower-level minor hockey league. Years ago, my friends and I would attend Mississippi Sea Wolves’ games in Biloxi, MS. At that time, the Sea Wolves were coached by Bruce Boudreau, who now coaches the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks. The Mississippi Sea Wolves were part of the East Coast Hockey League, but the team was dissolved in 2009. In 2010, hockey came back to the coast with the formation of the Mississippi Surge.
JJ and I went to Biloxi on Sunday and were excited that we were going to be able to see an in-state match-up. The Riverkings from north Mississippi made their way to Biloxi to do battle with the Surge. We arrived about 15 minutes before they dropped the puck and were able to score excellent seats; we were right on the glass. There were probably only 400 spectators, but the atmosphere was still exciting. I have seen a number of games, but this was JJ’s first, and she got to see an excellent game with lots of action directly in front of us. The Surge led most of the game, but the Riverkings tied it up with less than two minutes to play. The overtime period was a special treat. The overtime period in SPHL games lasts for only 5 minutes, but each team plays with only three skaters and a goalie. Even though the Surge lost in the last minute of overtime, the game was great, and we both really enjoyed the fast pace of the three on three hockey.
Our tickets were $18 each, but we could have had decent seats off the glass for around $10. It was not NHL caliber hockey, but the players really battled to the end. I was hoping that JJ would get to see a fight, but there were only a few skirmishes. I think this is the first game that I attended that did not have at least one fight. JJ did enjoy the game, and I just need to figure out how I can convince her that we need to travel to Nashville, Dallas, or St. Louis to see an NHL game. Unfortunately, I don’t think we will be able to see any of those teams play for $18 a ticket.
For more information about schedules and tickets, check out the Surge’s homepage here.
Samgyupsal 삼겹살
03 weeks ago
I visited the Lil’ Butcher Shop in Hattiesburg to see if they could cut some pork for us so that we could make samgyupsal. We usually buy our meat at the Asian market in town, but the samgyupsal that they stock is frozen and extremely thin. JJ and I both prefer a thicker cut, so I went to see the butcher to see if he could help. I really didn’t give him a good explanation of the thickness that I needed, and he gave us slices of pork belly that were too thick to cook Korean style. With a little cutting and trimming at home, we had the perfect pieces of pork to cook on our grill. The outer skin of the pork was left on and although it was chewy, it was quite tasty. I bought 4 pounds and paid less than half of what the Asian market charges. We will be going back to the Lil’ Butcher Shop, and I will be sure to check the cut a little bit better before leaving.
New Rice
New Orleans Part Deux
64 weeks ago
JJ and I checked into the Marriott, which was free thanks to my reward points, and rested up for a bit. We had decided that we were going to make a brief stop at the casino before having dinner. We budgeted about $80 for gambling, and less than 30 minutes after arriving, JJ was already up about $240. She was playing a “Super Jackpot Party” machine that sent the player to a bonus round if a certain combination came up on the reels. The player had the chance to choose a number of gift boxes, and JJ was one box away from making some serious money. Even though she didn’t advance to the big money round, we were happy with her profits. JJ and I have a method to keep up with our winnings; since the machines no longer dispense coins, if we are up a large amount, we print out a claim ticket and pocket it. At the end of the night, we cash in all of our tickets. I added another $60 in tickets to our winnings and since we were up, we decided to sit and play roulette for a spell. We spent about an hour playing and after a couple of late hits, we broke even and changed out our roulette chips. We then cashed in our tickets and came away with a healthy profit. We walked away feeling great and ready for a nice dinner.
We left the casino and made our way to Felix’s Oyster Bar. This has turned in to our go-to place for seafood. We ordered our favorite beer and a dozen char-grilled oysters. We also ordered a couple of shrimp-oyster Po-boys and were enjoying our dinner when suddenly we kept overhearing a group of customers speaking Korean. The hostess had sat a group of four a few tables behind us, and it was fairly obviously that they really didn’t know what to order. Since I have been embarrassed before by trying to help a bilingual speaker navigate in English, neither JJ or I got up. After listening to them struggle for a few minutes, I finally walked over, greeted them in Korean, and asked if I could help. They were happy with the assistance and my help consisted of getting JJ to translate for them. They ordered a few different dishes and seemed to like the jambalaya, and they all claimed that it reminded them of bokumbap. Both the Koreans and the waiter seemed relieved that JJ was their to help translate. It brought back memories of my first visit to Kimbap Cheonguk, and the nice older lady who spoke enough English to come to my rescue and help me order. At that time, this looked like nothing but a bunch of gibberish. I can only imagine what the menu at Felix’s looked like to the group of Koreans.
We said goodbye to the grateful Koreans and headed down to Bourbon Street for fun. We tried to break up our usual New Orleans agenda and try a couple different venues. We hit Tropical Isle to see if my buddy’s band was playing, and unfortunately, they were scheduled for Saturday afternoon so we missed seeing them. We did stick around and have a Hand Grenade and listen to the band, The Hangovers. They were pretty good, but we only caught the last 30 minutes of their last set so we left and moved down to Pazzo’s to listen to their band. For a Thursday night, the bars were very empty, but we still had a great time. I was shocked that the bars were so empty since there are two big football games coming up. The Saints play the Lions in an NFL playoff game on Saturday, and the BCS championship game is on Monday night. We saw members of both Alabama’s and LSU’s football team enjoying the Quarter and the casino, and ran into a few players hustling back to their hotel to meet their 12 am curfew. I guess most fans were going to arrive on Friday. Which was kind of nice since we had the place almost to ourselves.
Potent, but Tasty Hand Grenade
We stayed at Pazzoo’s for awhile even though I wasn’t real happy about paying $27 for two drinks, but the band was good so we stayed for about an hour. We ended the night at Pat O’ Briens piano bar as usual. We had one drink, requested a few songs, and then decided to crash out for the night. It was a nice break from Hattiesburg, and it was great trying a few different establishments. I actually have a list of other restaurants and bars that I want to visit, but those will have to wait for our next break from school. We will be back in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, but there is no way we will be able to visit any of the more popular restaurants/bars since the city is so crowded.
We woke up late, checked out, and made our way to the Korean grocery store across town. We had lunch at the Vietnamese restaurant next door, made a few purchases at the grocery, and headed back to Hattiesburg. We have a little more than a week before our final semester starts, and JJ and I are both excited about getting this last semester behind us.
New Orleans Getaway and a Quick Immigration Visit
2JJ’s biometrics appointment was scheduled for 1:00 pm at the Department of Homeland Security Office in New Orleans. We arrived about 15 minutes early and expected to wait for at least an hour. We were in and out in less than 15 minutes. Biometric appointments were handled by a dedicated team, and unlike some our previous dealings with immigration officials, they were quick and pleasant to deal with.
We left the office and headed to the French Quarter where we had lunch at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville. I had the the ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise’ and thought it was great. We also enjoyed a couple of margaritas that were delicious. The quick meal was good, but overpriced.
Slightly over-priced, but delicious
We left Jimmy Buffett’s and headed to Jackson Square to hear the street musicians, but on the way we noticed that ESPN had set up their Game Day studio in the far corner of the square. They were filming, and we stopped to take in a couple of minutes of the action. Can anyone explain the screen that is behind the analysts in the below photograph? I am curious as to how it appears clear when shot from the front, but clearly mesh-like from behind, lighting maybe?
We left the ESPN sets and moved over to the cathedral where the street musicians are always playing. During my undergraduate years, I would come down to the Quarter and sit around for hours listening to these guys play. I am sure that these are not the same musicians that I listened to ten years ago, but they were just as good.
This guy got big tips.
We checked into our free hotel room (Thank you, Marriott Points), and rested up for a big night on the town which I will write about in a second post.
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